Dashboard Camera Evidence

Dashboard Camera Evidence

There was some interesting news for many motorists recently, as many of the leading car insurance companies have now stated that they will accept footage from dashboard cameras as evidence in the event of a car accident compensation claim.

Dashboard cameras are small video cameras that are mounted on the dashboard of the windscreen of the car facing forwards so that they film the driver’s view of the road. They cost around £50, and can be easily installed without help from a professional. £50 seems a small price to pay for peace of mind, now that it has been stated (where?) that the footage from these cameras can be used to prove liability when a car accident compensation claim is being processed.

In recent years, with the growth in popularity of dashboard cameras, the position of the major insurance companies regarding such footage has been quite unclear. However, Nextbase, a car parts store chain and manufacturer of dashboard cameras, recently contacted 29 major car insurers and asked them their viewpoint. All 29 insurers that Nextbase contacted stated that they would accept dashboard camera footage as evidence in the event of a car accident compensation claim. Nextbase have stated that they believe that the reason why insurers are beginning to realise the benefits of allowing dashboard camera evidence to be used, is that it has been proven to be very beneficial in the “Cash for crash” car accident compensation claims fraud cases that cost the UK Insurance Industry about £1 billion a year!

The evidence collected from dashboard cameras will obviously not be used in isolation, but put alongside accounts gathered from independent witnesses, if the two parties involved disagree on exactly what happened. However, many believe that the use of dashboard camera evidence maymake the whole insurance claim process much more efficient as the video evidence can be seen to be more reliable than a witness statement, and this should, therefore, reduce the cost of the claims process too.

The other news related to this too, is that if you do use a dashboard camera in your car, you may qualify for a discount from insurers – with some companies quoting a discount of up to 12.5% if a driver informs them that they have a dashboard camera installed. AXA Insurance, for example, are currently offering a 10% discount on insurance policies to drivers who have dashboard cameras installed. AXA believe that having a dashboard camera in your car will focus you on driving more safely, and can provide reliable evidence in a case of a car accident compensation claim.

However, many insurers are focussing on fitting “black boxes” to vehicles instead, which records whether the driver is travelling within the speed limits, and so contributes heavily to road safety. It is, therefore, more likely at the moment that discounts will be offered by insurers when the car has a “black box” fitted, rather than a dashboard camera. There is some concern within the insurance industry too, that the footage from a dashboard camera will still only give a one-sided view of the accident as it will only show what happened on the part of the road it is recording, and not the surrounding area.

One word of warning though, if your insurer does give you a discount because you have a dashboard camera fitted to your car, they may write into the terms and conditions that this enables them to demand that the footage from the dashboard camera be released to them – even if it indicates that you are responsible for the accident.